"The tape was made aware to me the night before that it was shown in court. That's when I first saw it, and I was mesmerized by it, as (was) everybody else," Landrieu said. "The entire management of the prison system is in disarray."

Landrieu said the release of a video inside the prison showing a loaded gun and drug use makes him question spending $22 million on a proposed federal consent decree.

"It's very hard to go to the public and ask them for more money just to get poured into that system. That's one of the reasons (why) very early I started fighting this consent decree," Landrieu said.

The illegal activity shown in the video was alleged in a lawsuit filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which helped foster the reforms in the first place.

"The most frightening thing for a staff member or inmate is when the prison is out of control," criminologist Dr. Peter Scharf said.

Scharf called the video bizarre.

"How do you get it in? This is where it gets complex," Scharf said. "You don't smuggle Glocks in a prison or amounts of drugs or money."

Scharf questioned the system in place that would allow that kind of contraband to be inside of a jail.

"I think you really need a serious fact-finding (effort). Was this an anomaly? Was this one shift? Was this one tier? Is this representative?" Scharf asked.

As to whether Sheriff Marlin Gusman should resign, Landrieu said that's for the public to decide.

"It's important to all of us that all of our institutions are run constitutionally and make sense," Landrieu said. "How we do it and when we do it ... (and) how it gets done and when it gets done and who participates, are bones of very serious contention."